Female apisto aggression

[Ambienttech]

Two weeks ago I picked up from my lfs a male and female apistogramma agassizii double red. They are in a fluval flex 15 gallon fully planted tank for quarantine with plans on putting them in my planted 75 gallon tank. The first few days the male was the dominant one but wasn’t being aggressive. I went out of town for work for 2 days and when I returned I found the male sucked up against the bottom filter return.  Thought he was sick and dying and was going to remove him to an isolation tank and that is when I saw the female attack him. At that point I put him in a small fry box just to get him away from the female. Left him in fry box for 24 hours, he colored back up and was looking good. I decided to try and let him out of the fry box and watch their interactions. Immediately the female attacked. She isn’t defending a certain area she is chasing him down no matter where she sees him and is ramming him. She seems to be out to kill the male. I know the female can be aggressive when defending eggs but I have searched the tank and there is no eggs to defend. 
 

Anyone have any advice on how to go about getting these two back in the same tank? I bought the pair in hopes one day they may have fry but at this point I can’t have them in same tank. 

[Ambush0908]

I recently bought a pair and they are great fish.  I am far from an expert but in my experience I would think once they got in the bigger planted tank they should have enough room to have their own space.   Mine are in a large planted tank and hardly interact.  That being said I have had fish that would just not behave no matter what.  I think you will be ok with this species though.  One other thing, if they were young when you got them it is possible that they were not sexed correctly.   You can google that and will find sometimes it hard to tell or there is a false male (maybe female).   I trust my fish store but I still am not convinced they gave me a male/female pair.   I am not trying to breed so I am not that concerned.  Good luck!

[Ambienttech]

Thanks for the response. They are old enough I’m positive they are sexed properly. I find it crazy at the change so quickly. I watched them in the store tank for a good 15 minutes or more and they seemed to have paired up. The male was chasing away all the other males and females. He was the boss of the tank then I put them in this tank and she turned psycho killer on him lol. 

[Mmiller2001]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 will have some solid suggestions.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

They (Agassizii) are harem breeders one male many females so they fight for dominance within the males AND the female ranks. This situation is not unusual. Although they had demonstrated breeding behaviors in the store putting them in a new environment may have reset their bonds. Lots of cover and places to take a respite is important. Sight breaks we call them. If it gets really bad you can reset things by doing a couple rescape. Enjoy them they are gorgeous and eventually the carnage will settle down and you’ll have a workable breed-able group. 

[Ambienttech]

On 12/19/2021 at 7:22 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

They (Agassizii) are harem breeders one male many females so they fight for dominance within the males AND the female ranks. This situation is not unusual. Although they had demonstrated breeding behaviors in the store putting them in a new environment may have reset their bonds. Lots of cover and places to take a respite is important. Sight breaks we call them. If it gets really bad you can reset things by doing a couple rescape. Enjoy them they are gorgeous and eventually the carnage will settle down and you’ll have a workable breed-able group. 

Thanks. Yesterday I swapped the male and female so that the female was in the fry box. Let her out about two hours ago and it seems the male has taken back control which is a good thing. He doesn’t chase her around the tank non stop and ramming her like she was doing to him. 

I was wanting to purchase multiple females but my lfs only sells them as a pair. Would it be better to get another pair or try and source more females elsewhere. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Ambienttechdo you have someplace for the male? Buying from your local fish store is always the way to go as a good one is invaluable in this hobby. Grabbing the pair and just putting her with your existing couple would be great. Unless you can find females online this may be your best option.